Petition of Ehrenburg's mother to the Emperor for her son's pardon and the 1911 sentence

The letter describes how Ehrenburg was released on bail and left for Paris, whence he could not return to be served with the indictment on grounds of ill health, "being ill with acute articular rheumatism, complicated by heart disease"

Although other sources tell us that at this time Ehrenburg had fallen in with Russian revolutionary circles and was on friendly terms with Lenin. The illness, however, is attested by a physician, the certificate is authenticated by the appropriate French authorities, and was then submitted through the consulate to the Moscow Judicial Chamber. Yet the doctor's note did not prevent the issuing of an order to take Ehrenburg into custody the moment he returned to Russia.

He could not come to Russia to stand trial, the letter explains, since a spell in prison would aggravate the tuberculosis of the lungs that had already set in.

In the end, in 1911, of the five accomplices only Ehrenburg was sentenced, to 8 months' confinement in a fortress; the rest were acquitted.

The letter states that he was too young and inexperienced and had fallen easily under a pernicious influence, that he himself is a loyal subject of the Emperor, and that in future he will occupy himself with literature alone. This I particularly enjoyed.

The letter closes with the following lines: "We, unhappy parents, make bold to lay at the feet of Your Imperial Majesty our most humble petition and fervent entreaty for clemency and forgiveness, and that our only son, the hope and support of our old age, be restored to us."

The writer was his mother, Anna Borisovna Ehrenburg.